Everything, including Bonnie’s backing, wAs(l)amazing

There’s no doubt that as far as Hindi film soundtracks were concerned, 2008 was Rahman's year.

Jodhaa Akbar, his first release of the year, lived up to the expectations of the fans of the composer, whose previous two collaborations with director Ashutosh Gowariker weren’t letdowns.

Of course, no mention of the film’s soundtrack would be complete without a mention of the third member of the team – Javed Akhtar, who penned the songs.

Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah, which was five minutes and 54 seconds long, introduced the Mughal emperor. It was rendered by Mohammed Aslam and Bonnie Chakraborty.

Benny and Co could sing

Composer A R Rahman roped in half-a-dozen singers (Annupamma Krishnaswami, Blaaze, Darshana K T, Mohammed Aslam, Satish Subrahmaniam and Tanvi Shah) to share singing credits with Benny Dayal.

And their collaboration – Pappu Can’t Dance Saala, from Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na – became one of the most popular tracks of the year, because it was catchy (not to mention the fact that it gave the youth four minutes and 27 seconds to prove they can dance).

Abbas Tyrewala penned the song, whose remixed version, which was as long as the original, was credited to Krishna Chetan.

It found MANI young takers

The statement that has been made in the title of this post was certainly not a surprise, because Paathshala, from Rang De Basanti, was a song for the youth.

It was the longer of the two versions of the track – it was three minutes and 40 seconds long.

The shorter version, titled Paathshala (Be A Rebel), was 31 seconds shorter and had different lyrics.

Both the versions were penned by Prasoon Joshi and composed by A R Rahman.

They were rendered by Mohammed Aslam and Naresh Iyer. 

The Be A Rebel version featured Blaaze’s rap.

It wasn’t worth RAviNg about

There are some songs that are catchy despite not being anything to write home about.

One of them was Khalbali, the second longest song on the soundtrack of Rang De Basanti, which released on India’s Republic Day (January 26) in 2006.

It was six minutes and 19 seconds long.

While the Hindi portion of the track was penned by Prasoon Joshi, the Arabic portion was penned by Nacim, who shared singing credits with A R Rahman (who composed it) and Mohammed Aslam.

It was longlisted in the Best Original Song category at the Academy Awards.